British Values…Gospel Values!

The definition of British Values was set out by the government in the 2011 Prevent Strategy and added to Ofsted inspection guidance in July 2014: " to create and enforce a clear and rigorous expectation to all schools to promote fundamental British Values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faith and beliefs". At St. Anthony's Catholic Primary School these values are regularly promoted through teaching and learning, a comprehensive programme of assemblies and a positive behaviour policy allowing pupils to develop and demonstrate skills and attitudes that will allow them to participate fully in and contribute positively to life in modern Britain. 

We want to work with each and every family to allow every single child to reach their true potential and achieve. Our mission statement sums up what we are about and what all our responsibilities are. All of our work is based firmly on the Gospel Values and Virtues. These Values and Virtues, sometimes referred to as the Jesuit Virtues, to support the children as they develop as members of our faith community. The Gospel Virtues are described as loving, hopeful, attentive, learned, faith-filled, generous, eloquent, truthful, intentional, compassionate, active, prophetic, curious, wise, grateful and discerning. 

As a Catholic School we actively promote values, virtues and ethics that shape our pupils' character and moral perspective, through the teachings of the Church. We are confident that our continued focus on the Gospel Values will give our pupils the necessary awareness of what it means to be a good citizen in Britain today, and embed in them the building blocks of a future successful and productive life.

Through our RE, RHE, Geography curriculums and by promoting Catholic Social Teaching Principles  we are able to make real links between the values of our pupils and the lives of others in their community, country and the world in general. Through our Creative Curriculum we teach about democracy, civic responsibility, rules and laws, the monarchy, equality, values and virtues, environmental awareness and understanding of other faiths. 

"What we are called to respect in each person is first of all his life, his physical integrity, his dignity and the rights deriving from that dignity, his reputation, his property, his ethnic and cultural identity, his ideas and his political choices. We are therefore called to think, speak and write respectfully of the other, not only in his presence, but always and everywhere, avoiding unfair criticism or defamation"

Pope Francis